Basically I started with mullvad then turned to proton but after they introduced AI and a crypto wallet I’m just looking for what peoples opinions are.
EDIT: Thank you all for your suggestions and opinions :D
I suggest RiseupVPN.
Riseup is good, but I try to use other services as it’s aimed at activists, journalists, refugees, and other people in need who will need the bandwidth a lot more than I do.
Personally I wouldn’t trust any VPN I didn’t host myself
Self hosted VPN can be easily traced back to you unless you have multiple users.
Experience wise i’ve had a better time with mullvad at every corner when it comes to vpns than proton.
Protons still a respectable company i’d say but there focus is gonna become spread more thin while mullvads gonna continue providing a stable and simple experience.
Plus mullvads never gonna confuse you when it comes to pricing unlike proton, no extra time spent finding the difference between a monthly and annual subscription.
IMHO Mullvad
Mullvad only!!!
Mullvad is cheaper, and probably a bit more trusted, but Proton has port forwarding. Currently I use Mullvad. I don’t like the Mullvad’s 5 device limit on Wireguard clients though. You can only have 5 devices added to the account, no matter if just 1 or all 5 are currently connected. And after using Wireguard once, I don’t want to use OpenVPN again where wg can fully replace it.
Both support cash payments, though Proton makes me feel like they expect it for larger sums of cash:We cannot be responsible for lost shipments, so we strongly recommend sending your payment using a service that provides a tracking number so you can track the shipment. It’s also helpful to notify us that you’re sending us cash in the mail, so we know to expect it.
While Mullvad asks you not to use registered mail nor send larger amounts of cash. I feel like the latter is implied by asking to notify them. I suppose “Hey, I am sending you 10 bucks via mail.” is not what’s expected here.
What I absolutely like is the fair pricing. It’s same price no matter how much time you buy, whether it’s 1 month, a year or two. Even their direct competitor IVPN does this crap (and so does Proton). I value that quite a bit.
So currently Mullvad is winning for me.
Mail is extremely insecure, it’s actually really nefarious for them to recommend it. I still use Mullvad sometimes because it’s just so cheap and fast. I know it’s some kind of high level NATO spyware though. Just look at where their servers are. I mean fucking come on now.
Just look at where their servers are.
Kind of… al around the place? What do you mean?
Also, in the mail you don’t send the account number, just a payment token. So the postman won’t be stealing your account, just your cash at most.
Vouchers are probably the safest, but I actually like sending mail, and this is basically my only opportunity to do so nowadays.
Okay let me try again. Where are their servers conspicuously NOT located?
They can just scan and open and reclose the mail they do this to everyone now I am so serious. Difficult to do at scale though so honestly I take it back, if everyone did it the mail way it could increase surveillance costs? Escalating everyone’s piracy to require forensic cracking at a federal or international level would skyrocket costa which should be a goal
Oh does the 5 device limit not apply to OpenVPN? Interesting
It technologically can’t. With Wireguard, you need to upload each device’s public key to Mullvad, thus registering each device separately. With OpenVPN you login with username and password. Or in this case just the username.
Theoretically speaking, you could have the same private key on 2 devices that won’t be connected simultaneously though.
I personally use mullvad for all outgoing traffic and then airvpn for any let forwarding I require. Basically airvpn is exclusive to incoming traffic, like my self hosted services or game servers, and then anything I do on the internet routes through mullvad. All setup through opnsense since they both support wireguard.
I always had issues with proton’s port forwarding being reliable in the past. That being said, if you need things like video streaming services, mullvad seems to be having a hard time with these recently where as proton worked well for me back when I used it (unsure if that’s still true).
I watched 4k Olympics live for a long time yesterday on mulvad. Different continents for end to end.
General consensus seems to be mullvad if you just want a VPN, and proton if you’re gonna use all the other stuff. I use their email for some things, and I’m planning to switch to proton drive once they roll out the linux app, so I use proton.
I pay for proton mail and proton drive and still use Mullvad for my daily driver VPN.
Only time proton VPN is worth using is if you need the port forwarding like for gaming or something.
I found that Proton always had connectivity issues tbh. Frequently had to disable my vpn just to use the internet which defeated the purpose. Never had this issue with Mullvad; I’ve found it very reliable. Also Mullvad is absolutely more privacy oriented. They don’t require any kind of personal data. Proton will be tied to your Proton account so possibly your email, proton drive, etc.
Mullvad
Only reason to use proton is because you’re already paying for their email/drive/whatever.
they’re both good but I use mullvad only because I use proton for email and I don’t want one company to have both my emails and web traffic
Isn’t mullvad better and cheaper?
think I didn’t get it?
protonvpn is a few pennies cheaper when goin’ for 2 years and even much more when you wait for the black friday offers.
so if you can’t wait and don’t use a vpn on a daily basis, mullvad is 100% cheaper, so yes kinda.
I wouldn’t pay for 2 years for a privacy service. Eventually you’ll loose privacy. Better to create a new account at least every 6 months.
Mullvad because, much like going raw, VPN’s are used for special occasions.
